~ Hi there! On HGTV's Hit Reality TV Show DESIGN STAR, I sewed, painted & sawed my way through some pretty tough challenges, but design doesn't have to be hard! I believe in combining simple, timeless design ingredients to create what I call "Design Recipes". I hope you find this to be a truly awesome resource. www.design-recipes.com contains design tips, articles, podcasts, how-to videos and of course design recipes galore! I invented Design Recipes simply because I love sharing my ideas! For years I collected design magazines, tagged and clipped pages with inspirational images & did nothing! That's because I didn't have the resource information so I could purchase the beautiful furniture I was seeing on the pages of the magazines! With Design Recipes, I SHARE how the room was executed, giving you the basic design tools needed for you to recreate the same look on your own and best of all I give you all of the resource information! Enjoy!

For many people, their first instinct when furnishing a room is to place all furniture against a wall – even if that means partially blocking a window. But when you’re staging your home to sell, this should be avoided whenever possible! Windows are an important aspect of a room – they have the potential to make the space look bigger, they can be highly attractive with the right window treatments, and most importantly, they let in natural light.

This home in Atlanta, GA for example, looked dark, cramped and a bit dingy when the windows were blocked off.

Before:

Photo Credit: Cathy Hobbs

Once the furniture was rearranged, the room was instantly opened up. By facing a sofa toward the window, a balance was created and the room did not appear lopsided or cramped. Plus, it created a great, unobstructed light source!

Learn tips like this one, and many more, at a hands-on CSP Home Staging Course! Upcoming classes are being held in Greenville, SCon December 7thand Boston, MA on December 14th. Receive a free information packet by calling 888-STAGING or visiting www.stagingtraining.com. View the full schedule of upcoming classes here: Cathy Hobbs Home Staging Classes